Document Registration Agency Set to Erect HQs

Yohanes Abay Consulting will design and consult on the building

The Document Authentication & Registration Agency is set to erect a new 21-storey headquarters on a 2,800sqm lot in Mexico Square along Tessema Aba Kemaw street.

The Document Authentication & Registration Agency is set to erect a new 21-storey headquarters on a 2,800sqm lot in Mexico Square along Tessema Aba Kemaw street.

The Construction Project Office of the Federal Government Bureau awarded Yohanes Abay Consulting Architects & Engineers to design and consult on the building.

“We are struggling to deliver service efficiently given space constraints,” says Meresa G.Yohannes, director-general of the Agency. “We’re currently forced to keep documents away from the head office.”

The agency’s current head office is located in Sidist Kilo.

The Bureau floated the bid to hire a consultant last September.

Out of the 17 companies that expressed interest, seven firms submitted bids for the project, and only two passed the technical evaluation.

“After complaints were received from the bidders, it took a year to settle on a winner,” Meresa told Fortune. “But the project office was finally able to settle the complaint by presenting it to a committee for clarification.”

The finalists were Yohanes Abay Consulting and OBon Voyage Architects & Engineers Consultants. The former was announced to be the winner last Wednesday, July 24, 2018.

Yohanes Abay previously consulted on projects that include the Government Communication Affairs Office, Public Servants Social Security Agency and the Adama Science & Technology University headquarters.

The firm secured 2.8 million Br for designing the building and a rate of 120,000 Br a month for consulting on the construction project. Yohanes Abay Consulting is set to complete the design in half a year.

“We plan to finalise the design and begin preparing the construction bid documents before the deadline,” says Yohanes Abay, managing director of the firm.

The building will help realise the document digitalisation plan soon,” Meresa told Fortune.

There have been a few new federal government agency headquarters’ under construction in recent years.

Just last March, Public Servants Social Security Agency awarded China Jiangxi Corporation for International Economic & Technical Cooperation a contract to build its headquarters and regional office building complex for two billion Birr. The Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority, Ethiopian Football Federation and National Meteorology Agency are also set to get new headquarters.

Close to the area where the bureau has secured its headquarters is the 2.5 billion Br head office of Ethiopian Electric Power.

“The Agency’s building area has minimum storey criteria of 19,” Yohanes tells Fortune. “Still, placing all services at a single place is a better alternative than using different government offices for a single agency.”

Meresa agrees.

“That way we can be more accessible and increase our service efficiency,” he says.

Currently, the Agency pays over 10 million Br a year to Alsam Cheleqleq Building, on Chad Street, where its head office and one of its branches are located. The total cost of the agency’s 15 branches has reached 15 million Br a year.

Established in 1987, the agency earned 359.4 million Br in revenues last fiscal year, by authenticating over 753,550 documents for 1.6 million clients. The Bureau plans to collect 400 million Br and serve over two million applicants in the new budget year.

Last June, the agency launched an online document registration service in nine of its branches at the cost of 5.3 million Br supplied by Custor Computing Plc.